Newsletter of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts Winter 2019-2020 In the Footsteps of Christ Thomas More College in the Holy Land The Mount of Olives. The Sea of street where Christ carried his Cross. I so many graces—you could see how the Galilee. The Via Dolarosa. The Holy attended Mass on Calvary—yes, I prayed students were affected by the experience Sepulchre. For a privileged group the Sacrifice of Calvary on Calvary in so many ways. After every Mass there of Thomas More Students, staff, and itself.” was such a levity, such a joy.” faculty, these places are now more than The grace of attending private The pilgrimage would not have names, more than Scripture passages Masses in these holy sites was palpable been possible without the generous or scenes etched in glass. This past throughout the pilgrimage. “Celebrating support of Sean Feiler, a Manhattan July, President William Fahey, along the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in hedge fund manager, and Atlanta-based with over a dozen students from the Capernaum was such a powerful entrepreneur Frank Hanna III. “I had college, several staff members, Chaplain experience,” says Fr. Matthew Schultz, been seeking an opportunity for our Matthew Schultz and College supporter who served as Chaplain for the entire students to undertake a pilgrimage to Sean Feiler and his two eldest children, pilgrimage. “It was totally calm. The the Holy Land," says Fahey. "But many traveled nearly 6,000 miles to spend ten altar is right in front of the Sea of of our students come from large Catholic days walking in the footsteps of Christ in Galilee. It’s one thing to be connected families, and work full-time during the the Holy Land. to Christ—that’s the obvious connection summer to support their education at It was a transforming experience. for a Priest when he offers Mass. But to Thomas More. It is simply unrealistic “Christ came alive for me,” says senior be connected to Christ through St. Peter, to ask them to not only forego their Daniel Richert. “I stood at the Church through the papacy, through the bishops summer income but also to come up of Dominus Flevit and thought about and the entire priesthood—that was with the additional funds to travel to how Christ entered the city of Jerusalem simply overwhelming.” the Holy Land. The support of these and wept. I prayed the First Sorrowful “It was so edifying to walk into the two men was indispensible to making Mystery of the Rosary in the Garden various holy shrines to see the students this profound experience a reality for of Gethsemane. I prayed the Stations writing in their journals, praying, our students and the College, and we are of the Cross as I walked along the same singing,” says Fr. Schultz. “There were profoundly grateful." continued on page 12 Guardians of the Home 3 Newman & the Idea 6 of a College Developing the Whole Person 8 Investing in the Future 11 The Society Page 15 College Pilgrims on The Way of the Cross 2 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu Winter 2019-2020 3 Guardians of the Home Alumnae live out their vocation as mothers If you do a Google search for the disease to be prevented, and abortion an irritation or suffocation, is actually meaning of “motherhood,” you will find treats it as a mistake to be fixed. Gay the greatest glory of a mother: “[W]hen a rather circular definition—motherhood ‘marriage’ disregards the need for both people begin to talk about this domestic defined as “the condition of being a a mother and a father, undermining duty as not merely difficult but trivial mother,” with the following sample the distinctions that make them each and dreary, I simply give up the question. sentence: “She balances motherhood unique. In vitro fertilization views . How can it be a large career to tell with a demanding career.” motherhood as a ‘right’ that a woman other people’s children about the Rule But motherhood, as countless pontiffs can demand, rather than a blessing for of Three, and a small career to tell one’s ommunitasA community newsletter have understood, is much more than a which she should be truly thankful.” own children about the universe? How “condition” a woman balances equally can it be broad to be the same thing to (or uneasily) with other commitments. It "True education of everyone, and narrow to be everything to Communitas is published by The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts is, rather, the privilege of serving as the the whole person someone?” thanks to the generous contributions of loyal supporters. nurturer of one’s children, as the head of Several years ago, Pope Emeritus the domestic sphere, as the “guardian” takes place in a Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, To support this publication go to: www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu/Support of the household. Pope Pius XI culture of prayer, echoed both Pius XI and Chesterton articulates the Catholic understanding in recognizing the disastrous effects the To subscribe: community, and www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu/Communitas of motherhood beautifully in his modern emphasis on utility has had on 1930 encyclical casti connubii, or “On beauty. That is the motherhood. In this “cult of efficiency,” Editor Publisher Layout Editor Christian Marriage.” Here he discusses he notes, “it is precisely woman who Amy Fahey William Fahey Dominic Cassella the disastrous cultural forces attempting kind of culture we is paying the greatest price.” When to liberate women from the arduous enjoyed at TMC, viewed within the narrow sphere of responsibilities of motherhood and usefulness, children are undesirable, and home life in the name of a benighted and that is the kind motherhood—ironically—unproductive. “emancipation”: “the woman is to be of culture I am now “Woman, who is creative in the truest freed at her own good pleasure from the sense of the word by giving life, does burdensome duties properly belonging striving to create in not ‘produce,’ however, in that technical to a wife as companion and mother.” sense which is the only one that is valued He continues: “This, however, is not my own home for our by a society more masculine than ever the true emancipation of woman, nor growing family." in its cult of efficiency. She is being that rational and exalted liberty which convinced that the aim is to ‘liberate’ belongs to the noble office of a Christian Pius XI was not alone in prophesying her, ‘emancipate’ her, by encouraging woman and wife.” It is, rather, “the such a comprehensive attack on her to masculinize herself, thus bringing debasing of the womanly character and motherhood. G. K. Chesterton also her into conformity with the culture the dignity of motherhood, and indeed penned a moving defense of motherhood of production and subjecting her to of the whole family, as a result of which for an age which, as Pius XI recognized, the control of the masculine society of the husband suffers the loss of his wife, had begun championing a dangerous technicians, of salesmen, of politicians the children of their mother, and the notion of “utility” that sought to who seek profit and power, organizing home and the whole family of an ever undermine the centrality of a mother’s everything, marketing everything, watchful guardian.” relationship with her child. “Babies instrumentalizing everything for their The words of Pius XI may strike many need not to be taught a trade,” he said own ends.” The end result of this today as hopelessly out of step with in What’s Wrong with the World, “but instrumentalized, masculizined view modern conceptions of womanhood, to be introduced to a world.” With his of woman, says Ratzinger is that she is shaped as they have been by the feminist trademark common sense and wit, he “robbed” of “motherhood.” movement of the past century. But observes that “woman is generally shut there is no denying that motherhood up in a house with a human being at the is under assault in our mainstream time when he asks all the questions that continued on page 4 culture. As one young Catholic writer, there are, and some that there aren't.” Michelle Bauman, has soberly observed, But Chesterton understands that being “Contraception treats motherhood as a “shut up” with her children, rather than 4 www.ThomasMoreCollege.edu Winter 2019-2020 5 continued from page 3 Guardians of the Home In a culture that does little to support Aja McCarthy (née Cowhig), ’11, media contacts.” Erin Kamprath (née Monfils), ’15, and much to denigrate motherhood, who hails from British Columbia, first Aja now directs an exponentially- married alumnus Augustine Kamprath, the College celebrates all of our came to Thomas More in 2008 as a expanding domestic network: she is who hails from Post Falls, Idaho, the alumnae who have made great personal, sophomore transfer student. After the mother of three active and adorable summer after they both graduated from professional, and financial sacrifices graduating in 2011, she served for two little boys—Damien (5), Xavier (3), and Thomas More College. They currently to embrace their vocation as mothers. years as a Research Assistant for the Raphael (1). live in Erin’s home state of Minnesota, These women have drawn upon the Development Office. During that time, "ThomasMore College helped prepare where Augustine works as a Contract formation they received at the College she began dating John McCarthy, then me for the vocation of wife and mother Administrator for the Minnesota to resist the lure of what the Church has a graduate student in Philosophy at in various ways.